Karachi administration ready to tackle monsoon issues

KARACHI: Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui on Sunday said that the Karachi administration was well prepared as compared to past in order to tackle monsoon rains in city despite problems being faced to clear the sewerage lines completely from garbage.Addressing a press conference at Civic Centre along with Administrator Karachi and other officials, Siddiqui said that efforts were underway from months to clear sewerage lines from garbage, however, they were not able to completely clear the sewerage lines as it needed a Herculean effort. The Commissioner Karachi said that a control centre was established at his office, where focal person of every department including Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), KMC, K-electric and other stakeholders would rectify the problems faced by people. “These focal persons would be responsible for any problem faced by people and it would be their duty to consult their departments to fix the problems on urgent basis,” he said. Siddiqui said that KMC, DMCs, water board, railways and other institutions had also given their contingency plans for the monsoon. He said that he along with administrator Karachi had visited all nullahs and drainage systems in the city, where they witnessed massive dumping in and around the nullah. “Industial and residential waste is dumped without any hesitation by people and it needed a Herculean task to clean them either through normal or mechanical cleaning.”Siddiqui asked the DMCs to hire youth volunteers for cleaning nullahs in their areas. “Civil society should play their part in urging youth volunteers to come forward and clean sewerage lines,” he said adding they would also pay the volunteers for their work. He said that time had come to take political stakeholders into confidence and remove all encroachments alongside the nullahs. “In first phase, we have directed all municipal commissioners to take stern action against commercial encroachments without bearing any pressure,” he said. He also warned municipal commissioners of dire consequences if any garbage picking vans would be found throwing garbage in sewerage lines. He said that DMCs and municipal commissioners should convey any difficulties faced by them. He said that all concerned officials should remain on ground to tackle the situation. He said that although the problems still remain, they were open to any suggestions from civil society, media and other concerned departments for betterment in the current system. Speaking on the occasion, Administrator Karachi Rauf Akhter Farooqui said that for the first time, all municipal commissioners and other concerned staff had visited the sewerage lines to rectify the problems being faced by people. Farooqui admitted that piles of garbage had been dumped in sewerage lines but they would make all out efforts to remove them. He said that the population of the city is growing at rapid pace, however, unfortunately the city do not have a sewerage system to fulfil its requirements. “The nullahs in the city were designed to carry flood water but now they are being used as sewerage lines,” he said adding encroachments on the nullahs had intensified the problems of the sewerage system. He said that the administration in Karachi was on same page to avoid flooding in the city. “The situation is better from past, however, it could be termed safe to avoid flooding.” The administrator Karachi said that the provincial government had sanctioned a suitable amount to tackle the monsoon situation in the city, which would be received by them on Monday.